How full is the university, really?

The debate over internationalisation and rising tuition fees suggests a university bursting at the seams. The numbers point the other way, writes Yeşim Topuz.

All the talk about internationalisation and rising tuition fees, but how many does it actually affect? Because for the fifth year in a row the number of first year students has decreased – both for Dutch and international students.

Well, part of the reason could be the ‘re-Dutchification’. The UNL (Universiteiten van Nederland) data confirms that the bachelor intake dropped by 3.4 percent, with the European student intake plummeting by 4.4 percent due to the universities freezing international recruitment and warning students of the housing shortage. On top of that, Minister Eppo Bruins tightened the Wet Internationalisering in balans (WIB) to make Dutch the standard norm.

However, the Dutch enrollment fell by 3.3 percent as well. On one hand, fewer and fewer high schoolers sat for the VWO exams last year, and fewer passed. On the other hand, around 1 in 5 students who did qualify for university chose a tussenjaar instead. Potential students see their peers struggling to balance their studies and personal life. In one study, almost half of those asked have indicated that they are stressed, often feel tired or are frustrated when things do not work out. As a consequence, some drop out or might take a gap year to ‘mature’ more first.

And within this, some studies are more affected than others.

Leaving the enrollment numbers aside: broad international fields like the social sciences are being forced to transition back into Dutch tracks, a massive exception has been carved out. Under the multi-billion-euro ‘Project Beethoven‘ state fund, the government is pouring hundreds of millions into technical programs to explicitly protect international enrollment, but only for sectors facing severe domestic labor shortages, like engineering and chip technology.

This policy prioritizes localized labor market demands and language proficiency over broad international recruitment. For social sciences and the humanities, this means facing heightened administrative scrutiny and potential downsizing as funding and policy focus shift toward technical and high-shortage sectors like engineering or healthcare.

While proponents argue these measures are necessary to make higher education sustainable and protect local infrastructure, critics worry it risks narrowing the university’s role as a global crossroads of ideas. While supporters say these changes are just a realistic way to fix the housing shortage and keep the system sustainable, there is a worry that they will turn universities into corporate pipelines and undermine the diverse, global vibe that made them great in the first place.

It leaves a lot of students wondering: how can universities fix these real-world infrastructure problems without losing their soul in the process?

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